Month: April 2018

It is both a good and bad news for Singapore’s economy as the price of private homes (both new launch and resale condo) witnessed a surge while it saw a decline in HBD resale homes in the first quarter of the year 2018. This is the highest rise recorded since 2010. Urban Redevelopment Authority and the Housing Board released this data yesterday.

Shedding light on the public property market, it can be safe to say that it remained on the lower side. Similar to this year, the HDB resale prices also showed a decline last year as well. The decrease in price registered last year was 1.5%.

The Economic Development Board has stated that the manufacturing industry in Singapore is significantly up 59% from last year. There is an increase in production year-over-year which investors use to gauge an industry’s performance during a certain period of time.

There are other industries in Singapore that have also shown respectable growth including the following:

Precision engineering production increased 10.5% in comparison to last year. Due to the increased growth in components and modules, specifically the production of optical and cable merchandise and products rising to 31.1%. Read more

It is well-known the fact that the authorities in Singapore are looking to bring the communities on this island even closer to each other, by strengthening the bonds and relationships of people that live in them. As part of this strategy, the Housing Board decided to create new and exciting playgrounds in various neighborhoods, with the purpose of giving children adequate outdoor spaces while bringing families together and paying an homage to the neighborhoods’ heritage.

Assets Company (AssetsCo) has been given a new tender submission deadline for the high-speed rail project that connects Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. The previous date for bids and tender submissions was June 29 but it was extended to December 28, 2018 during a press statement on April 19, 2018.

Rama Venkta (MD, SG HSR) and Mohd Nur Ismal Mohammed Kamal (CEO, MyHSR Corp) made this known during their statement that the purpose of this was to receive “high-quality and competitive proposals from all the bidders” for the high-speed rail express service.

More good signs that the property market in Singapore is on the up, comes from recent statistics showing that the number of foreign investors returning to these shores and buying property is increasing.
On average the number of transactions carried out by foreigners every year, is approximately 2,200. The number of annual transactions rose to as high as 3,600 between 2010 and 2013, but then largely due to the introduction of the 15% ABSD in 2012, that number has been falling. 2017 saw around 1,600.

Percentage wise, the number of foreign purchases last year was 5.6% compared to an average of 8.7%.
Evidence suggests that the trend is being reversed however. The URA released figures showing that the number of caveats lodged by foreigners in the first half of 2017 increased by almost 50% from the same period a year earlier. This is backed up by Eli Lee, the head of strategy at the Bank of Singapore. Mr Lee stated he expected foreign buyers to return in numbers to give a further boost to the property market that has seen definite improvement of late. Those improvements have been largely fuelled by an upturn in domestic transactions. An increase by foreign investors will help to push through that momentum, especially in the higher value end of the market.

The Garden was sold for $906.9 million to the joint establishment of MCL Land and Yanlord Land Group. This year, it was the 2nd biggest joint purchase. Freehold Condo, Tulip Garden consisted of maisonettes and 162 apartments along with two shops. It is conveniently located in the District 10, near the Good Class Bungalow area and Holland Village.

The biggest joint sale of the year was Pacific Mansion situated in River Valley. This estate was purchased by Hong Realty, GuocoLand, and Intrepid Investments. They paid total $980 million for the purchase of this land.

Moreover, this was the 4th try to sell the Tulip Garden. The estate was first sold in 2007 to the group by Bravo Building Construction. Unfortunately, the group canceled the purchase after they were unable to raise the funds. This is was because of the financial crisis. As a result of this, the company lost their deposit of $25.8 million as the owners of Tulip Garden kept the amount.

This real estate project was completed in the year 1985 and has a total area of 316, 708 sq. ft. The buyers of this estate have paid 20 .4% more than the reserve price of $753 million. According to reports, the owners were able to gain $100,000. It is believed that this time the process will be much smoother than the previous times.

According to the managing a director of Colliers International, this is a great opportunity for the redevelopment. Even after having sale deals in the Holland Road zone, the offer of Tulip Garden was attractive to let go. The key component that makes Tulip Garden attractive is its location.

More and more condominium owners are starting to see the benefits of sharing their homes and developers have started to respond, allowing residents to share their property. Home sharing for a short period of time is a great opportunity for owners and travelers alike. People in Singapore have been waiting a long time for home sharing to be approved by URA. Home sharing is intended for a short period of time for residential properties but only with the consent of the owner. Also, any property, opting into this plan, must be registered.

With their proposed documents, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) will analyze how home sharing can work for condos and other common properties. Other aspects could include the need for fire safety regulations, what part management committees will play and how they will govern platform operators.

Regarding condos, the URA said that the owners must hold the majority of the shared property value. Once endorsed, the home share will remain active for 2 years and then a renewal process will kick in again. That said, if at any time less than 80% of owners agree to home sharing, there will be no further renewals.

The series of en bloc sales continue in Singapore, with the recent sale of Asia Gardens, a rather impressive property on the Everton Road. Located very close to the Spottiswoode Park, the development that has no less than 23 stories, was just sold for the amount of $343 million. A consortium led by Sustained Land was the winning bidder of this collective sale. Thus, the owners of the units in Asia Gardens, 80 in total, should expect receiving sums situated between $3.476 million and $7.73 million for each unit, once the sale completes.

When the tender for this particular property was made public in March, the minimum asking price for Asia Gardens was of $338 million. As it is more than obvious, the development got sold for a higher sum than the initial request of the owners. The property has a surface of 72,059 sq. ft. and was completed back in the 80s. Due to the development baseline that is rather high for Asia Gardens, the new owners of the property won’t have to pay a development charge for it. This means that the value per square foot per plot ratio is $1,565, which also includes a balcony area that represents a 10% bonus.

One of the foremost property developers in Singaporean history, Oxley Holdings Ltd, has reached its 76% milestone in its project launched in Singapore, called The Verandah Residences.

The property company is glad to announce this incredible feat in a few weeks of its launch. The 76 percent sales is the equivalent of 129 out of the 170 housing units up for sale in this period.

The package the company is giving out that reached this amazing response level is made up of one bedroom, one bedroom with study, as well as two bedroom units located in a choice part of the town, totaling one hundred and seventy units in all.

In February, the export growth of Singapore decreased and this decline continued in March. However, there was some improvement in the growth rate of export.

There has been a decrease in the non-oil domestic exports of 2.7%. Partially, the reason for the decline was the last year’s high base. This was lower than what the economists’ anticipated, as they were expecting an increase of 1.2%.

This is not the kind of news that should worry landlord anytime soon, as rents are still requested by many people in Singapore, especially in the non-core central region. In fact, in this particular area, rents even recorded a slight increase of 0.3%, in comparison with the downward trend that marks this sector of the property market. Apparently, according to the estimates of landlords, the rather small but positive increase is not doing much for them, as they will still take smaller percentages from their rents. In other words, the month of March will bring them rents with 18.9% lower than what they got in January, the same year.

The entire freehold condo which is named Tulip Garden estate sold for $907 million. There are 162 residential apartments with some offering second-floor rooms that have their own entrance way. There are also two shops included in the building layout and covers approximately 316,700 sq. ft. Tulip Garden is located in the prime D10, and is just a stone’s throw away from Holland V. The development is also nearby the Good Class Bungalow estate. Every owner in this residential building could very easily bag a sales proceeds ranging from about $4.3mil to $7.6mil, subject to the total floor area of individual unit. The smallest floor area of the development begins with 1,701 square feet. While the largest units were as big as 3,412 square feet.

According to the latest findings, the collective sales market is supposed to be nearing the peak of its cycle currently. This happens one year after the boom of the collective sales market. The slowing down is attributed to major real estate figures choosing to scale down and going for smaller estates and smaller premiums as well. The report conducted by RHB came out on Tuesday, April 10. The market is bigger than ever and its overall value is expected to easily cross the figure of S$8.2 billion that existed over the last fiscal year. The peak of the market is expected to take place in the second or third quarter, as all developers get their land banks restocked after a supply pipeline steadily maturing.

In the past time, the collective sales in Singapore that involved residential developments were more than surprising. Not on rare occasions, they were sold for impressive sums, becoming a great deal for those that decided to opt for this solution. At the moment, Farrer Court holds the record in this sector, which was sold in 2007 for the stunning sum of $1.34 billion. A consortium led by CapitaLand represented the winning bidder, turning the development into what is known today as d’Leedon, a modern development with a total number of 1,715 units. But, if The Diary Farm gets all the approvals it needs for the owners, then its starting price has high chances of reaching $1.68 billion, which will definitely be a new record. In fact, all the owners of this freehold development are meeting at the end of the week, to discuss the terms concerning this collective sale.

FEC properties which is owned by Far East Consortium had recently bought The Estoril at Holland Road, this freehold condo was purchased at approximately $223.mil via collective sales.

This translates the property rate to approximately $1654 psf, ppr. Along with the bonus of 10 percent Gross Floor Area that derives from the balcony space. Due to the inclusion of 10% bonus, the price of the land is also reduced to $1504 psfppr.